The Affinities of Civilization: Beyond Earth: Supremacy

Sid Meiers Civilization: Beyond Earth takes place on an alien world and asks you to chart the course for the future of mankind. The guiding philosophy towards the evolution of humanity is shown though the new Affinity System. Each of the three Affinities, Purity, Harmony, and Supremacy, will have unique story and gameplay attributes. This Q&A led by Co-Lead Designers Will Miller and David McDonough and Art Lead Mike Bates sheds light on the Supremacy Affinity.

1. What are the defining aspects of this Affinity?

Supremacy represents the most dramatic change for humanity. This Affinity sees technology as the thing that saved humanity after The Great Mistake. Technology is what took man from Earth to the new planet, so they decide to double down in cybernetics. As the supremacy player sheds his or her humanity, they adopt a more austere robotic appearance. By the end of the game, vehicles and military units are sleek, efficient, and often unrecognizable from their human origin.

2. What geological, technological, or other benefits does this Affinity have over others?

Supremacy has an interesting tactical design. Unique Supremacy units, for the most part, work better in tightly formed groups than they do alone. This is because of the various adjacency buffs the units get from being near each other. This makes positioning your units more important, so you can maximize their battle potential. On the other hand, you can give up these perks for a lone wolf upgrade that buffs your unit when they are not next to anyone. You can live out your sci-fi alien-squashing fantasies by taking a lone wolf marine into the middle of an alien nest and open fire.

3. When designing the look for this Affinity, what served as inspiration?

Mike Bates - With Supremacys emphasis on advanced technology, we wanted to duplicate the sleek design you would expect to see on a cool piece of hardware. All the tech in Supremacy has been optimized and slimmed down. Theres no bulk or extraneous features. Think about cell phones 20 years ago, and then look at them now. You can compare the approach to Puritys bulky look. Purity has less sophisticated technology and must use brute force to make up for it. Supremacy has the more elegant streamlined solution and can perform advanced battle tactics.

4. What would a person aligned with this Affinity say to someone aligned with the others?

Resistance is futile.

Be sure to check out our post about the design of the Affinity system, or compare these traits with those of the Purity Affinity. Come back next week when we will take a look at the third and final Affinity, Harmony.